Lurking in Google News

Every so often I like to check out what the world is saying about Azerbaijan.  After all, I came to the realization the other night that Azerbaijan is a country that I will have my eye on for the rest of my life.

Thanks to a soccer game between Turkey and Armenia, it looks like trilateral talks will take place between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.  I don’t think people here have much faith that there will be a resolution between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but this is a step in the right direction.

And while this is apparent to anyone with eyes who has visted Baku, but construction is booming in Azerbaijan.  They give a few statistics, but I’d like to see how much money is being spent in the regions compared to Baku.

And there is also a bunch of links and info about the upcoming presidential election, in which the current president is expected to win by a landslide.

Back in Soviet times…

Living in the former soviet union is a trip.  A lot of times, volunteers ask the question, “what exactly is Azerbaijani culture?  How can you distinguish it from the Soviet influence?  The Turkish?  The Persian?”  The truth is that you can’t.  It’s a conglomeration of all of them with its own twist.  Still, you can’t get past the soviet influence in many ways.  Vodka is the drink of choice, people season their food with plenty of dill, and there is an unwavering obedience to the powers that be.

While Russian is still widely known and used (I teach english in russian-language school), the country itself is regarded by many as an imperialist power.  Even before this last fiasco with Georgia, many Azerbajanis remarked to me how they thought Russia tried to come in and destroy their culture, and how Russia showed its true colors when they sided with Armenia in the Nagarno Karabagh conflict.

I definitely grew up after the cold war, so there wasn’t a whole lot of propaganda going on, but I still feel like I was told that the Soviet Union was one cohesive block.  I had no idea that the countries that were adopted into what was basically Russia were less then willing participants.  To know that the Soviet time can be viewed as an occupation was very new to me.

Yet while Azerbaijanis hold the independence of their country in the highest regard, many people still speak fondly of the soviet times.  I’ve been told that during the soviet era, at least there was work for everyone.  A statement that stands well against a high unemployment rate.  I overheard a teacher at my school saying that during the soviet system, the teachers got paid twice a month.  Now, i’ve heard of the teachers at my school going several months in a row without getting a paycheck.  Say what you want about communism and capitalism, but there isn’t much debate about a functional system versus a dysfunctional one.

It helps me realize why a guy like Vladimir Putin is so popular.  He came in and turned a struggling Russia into a powerhouse again.  People don’t seem to care about what kind of economic system they have going for them, they just want one that works and at the same time preserves who they think they are.

starting again but not starting over

Monday marked the national holiday known as the Day of Knowledge.  It marks this official first day of school, which is celebrated by teachers and administrators giving wordy speeches and congratulations to all the students who are beginning the new year.

I remember the first day of last year pretty clearly, but monday brought it all back to me like it was yesterday.  Kids get all dressed up for the occasion, and the parents come out with their nicest clothes and oversized bouquets of flowers.  I had to give a speech last year, which amounted to “Thanks everyone.  My name is Jeff.  I’m American and I’ll be here for two years.  Come say hello.”  I think the crowd dug the brevity of the speech, because it recieved a strong round of applause.

In the school’s second day, there have already been times that I’ve thought to myself, “Oh my god.  It’s exaclty the same.”  Particularly when I walk by classrooms that are full of students, but lacking a teacher.  Or there’s the classic between-class free for all, where the hallway turns into possibly the loudest place in the world.

But the reality is that this year is going to be completely different.  I spent the first three months of last years chool year getting used to the complexities of the Azeri school system (which you can see in my blog posts from last September). 

This year, I’ve spent most of my time talking with students about their summer, and what they want to do this year.  The difference between having students ask me on the first day when their conversation club is going to be and waiting six months to even start one is going to be huge.

Farewell

I’ll be going to Baku this week to check see of the AZ4s.  They came the year before I did and will leave this week, leaving me with the countdown of my final year.  This also means that the new group is coming.  I’m looking forward to not only meeting them, but also to see what we were like when we first got here, as well as how much we’ve progressed over the last year.  Still, I’m gonna miss the friends I’ve made over the past year.

Just Stopping By

Dick Cheney was here in response to the Russia-Georgia conflict. He was pretty up front about that fact that he simply wants the energy coming out of this country. And i guess he’s offering westernization as a reward.

Here’s more

UPDATE: There’s a new article on Eurasianet about the visit now that it has been written in history for a week or two.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant, citing anonymous Azerbaijani government sources, reported that Cheney became “extremely irritated” during his September 3 stop in Baku when his Azerbaijani hosts declined to make a clear statement of support for the proposed Nabucco pipeline.

Here’s the link.  I’ve added the EurasiaNet website to the blogroll on the right side of the page.  I’ve found it to be a good news source for the region.

The Weather

I don’t want to jinx it, but I think the worst of the summer has passed.  The summer here in Ujar is ridiculous.  It got up to 110 several times in August.  Fortunately, I was away for almost all of July, but it was oppresively hot then, too.

Just for an example, last week, on a particularly hot day.  There was an explosion in my kitchen.  I went to investigate and saw shattered pieces of plastic all over the place.  I deduced that the lighter that I use to light my stove exploded from the heat pouring in from the windows.  It was that hot.

How do i deal with it?  I take naps and try to just fast forward through the hot part of the day.  And I have my fan on full blast the whole time.

Ramazan

I offered a guy some tea today and he told me that he was fasting.  While I thought about fasting myself (albeit for about 2 minutes) I decided that I wasn’t going to do it.  I thought it might be an interesting way to get in touch with the culture, but not eating from sunrise to sundown seemed like it would be too tough.

I remember Ramazan last year because it was going on when I first came to Ujar a year ago.  As I moved into my host family’s house and got settled in, my first experiences were marked by the feasts that would take place as the sun went down.  I vividly remember sitting in a small room filled with men and food, listening to a guy sing hymns from the Quran.  While it was novel, I also felt quite uncomfortable.  Now that I’m out of the host family, the Ramazan experience should largely pass me by without any affect.